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APIARIAN, 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE 

ON TH'E 

MANAGEMENT OF BEES; 

WITH THE 

BEST METHOD OF PREVENTING THE DEPREDA- 
TIONS OF THE BEE MOTH. 



BY WILLIAM M. HALL. 



NEW HAVEN: 

HITCHCOCK & STAFFORD, PRINTERS. 



1840. 










Entered, 
According to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 

WILLIAM M. HALL, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut District. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The design of the compiler of this little volume, 
is to furnish the practical apiarian with all the 
information necessary for the successful manage- 
ment of bees, without entering into vague specu- 
lations or sophistical theories. 

It is particularly designed for an accompaniment 
to the ISelf-protecting Bee-hive ; to enable the 
manager to use the hive to the greatest; possible 
profit; and to render the pursuit agreeable, and 
one of the most profitable sources of rural econo- 
my. This hive is offered to the public, with the 
full belief, that it will answer every purpose that 
can be expected of a bee-hive. 

It is sincerely believed, that no arrangement can 
be so successfully employed to discharge the filth, 



and also to prevent the depredations of the bee 
moth, as that of the double inclined plane. It 
has been thoroughly tested by experience, and has 
produced the most happy etfects. 
Wallinc-ford, August, 1840. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction, .7 

The aueen Bee, 11 

The Working Bees, or Neuters, 18 

Remedy for Stings of Bees, 23 

Of Drones and Workers, 23 

Construction of Combs and Cells, .... 25 

Wax, Honey, and Bee^read, 27 

Swarming, 29 

The Best Constructed Hive, 32 

Hiving Swarms, and transferring Bees from one Hive to 

another, 36 

Artificial Swarms, 40 

Situation of an Apiary, ...... 40 

Best Method of Destroying or Preventing the Ravages of 

the Bee Moth, 43 

Management of Stock Hives during winter, . . 47 



INTRODUCTION. ' 



THE HONEY BEE. 

The industrious bee has ever been viev/ed by 
intelligent naturalists, with a great degree of in- 
terest. The intelligent mind is never weary of 
its study ; as it contemplates the mysterious ope- 
rations of nature, and traces its wonderful phe- 
nomena up to nature's God. Philosophers, divines, 
moralists, and the inquisitive minds of all denom- 
inations of men, have had their attention arrested 
by this subject. The cultivation of this branch 
of husbandry furnishes for our table an innocent 
luxury, that cannot be excelled ; and it is calcu- 
lated to raise our contemplation to that divine 
wisdom, which creates and sustains the infinite 
variety in the animal world. In treating of bees, 
it is proper to describe their instinctive powers, 
form of government, their combination into com- 
munities, and each in its individual capacity. 
The natural instinct of bees is truly wonderful ; 
nature has taught them to roam abroad several 
miles distant in search of food, through number- 
less windings, and after collecting their fill, rise 
high into the air, and in a direct line return to the 
hive : nature has also endowed them with instinc- 
tive powers suflicient to produce snow-white wax, 



8 

from pure honey, and that too in cells of perfect 
symmetry, from " Sultry India to the Pole ;" she 
has tang"ht the bee to collect honey, prepare wax, 
perpetuate its race, and has endowed it with all 
that sao;acity, and with those qualities best adapted 
for its peculiar circumstances, in the sphere of its 
existence. The bee is no less w^onderful in its 
form of body, than in its instinct and sagacity. 
The proportion and symmetry is perfect ; the har- 
mony in combination of its parts, ao^reeable to the 
design of its creation. The bee has a large round 
eye on each side of its head. It has two strong 
teeth, which enable it to construct the cells, and 
to carry from the hive obnoxious substances. 
Below the teeth is the probossis, and within the 
mouth a long tongue. The bee has four wings 
and six legs ; in the third pair of legs are two tri- 
angular cavities, to which they attach the pellets 
of pollen, which they carry to the hive ; a part of 
the second pair is provided with what resembles 
brushes, for brushing off the pollen to be deposited 
in the hive. At the extremity of the six feet are 
fangs, with which the bees attach themselves to 
the sides of the hive, and to each other. The 
probossis is the principal organ employed in col- 
lecting honey; it is defended b3r a scaly sheath, 
when inactive. " The stomach consists of two 
parts, connected by a tube somewhat like the crop 
of the feathered tribe. In the first apartment, the 
nectar of flowers is elaborated into honey ; in the 
second, a portion of honey undergoes the action of 
the digestive powers, and is converted into the use 
of the laborers. The head of the bee is furnished 
with two antennae, by means of which they recip- 
rocally obtain a knowledge of each other, of their 



young, and their queen, all communicated by the 
sense of feeling. It is by these simple organs that 
they are guided in the dark, and enabled to con- 
struct their combs and cells, and to feed their 
young brood. When deprived of both their an- 
tennae, bees can no longer recognize objects ; their 
instinctive powers are lost ; and, like Samson 
after his locks were shorn, they are feeble, help- 
less, and soon perish." These facts have been 
demonstrated by that accurate naturalist, Mr. 

HUBER. 

In speaking of a hive of bees, we mean the ma- 
chine which contains the insects, the smarm, or 
cluster, designed to form a new family, and which 
is sometimes called colony. Each perfect hive 
contains three different kinds of bees ; females or 
queens, drones or males, and workers or neuters. 
Not more than one queen can ever live in one 
hive, and no hive can subsist long without her 
presence. The drones, of which there are some- 
times thousands in the same hive, are called males ; 
and the remainder are called neuters, from being 
supposed to belong to neither sex. From the 
queen the whole race is perpetuated, she being the 
only bee in the colony that produces eggs. The 
workers collect honey, form wax, construct combs, 
and administer to the wants of the young. The 
females and workers are furnished with a sting, of 
which the males are destitute. The sting is fur- 
nished with several barbs, like those of a dart, 
which prevents its retraction from the wound it 
has inflicted, until the discharge of the poison be 
effected. A liquid poison is injected into the 
wound by the sting, and if the bee is forced away, 
the sting is retained, and the bee dies. (Queens 



10 

are less disposed to sting than the neuter. The 
three kinds of bees are of different size and ap- 
pearance, and may be easily recognised. The 
queen bee is much larger than the common bees, 
or drones, and may be recognized by her length 
of body and shortness of wings. The common 
bees and drones are familiar to observers, the latter 
being much larger and less active. 



PRACTICAL TREATISE 



ON THE 



MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



THE aUEEN BEE. 



The queen bee is ranch larger than either of 
the other bees, and of different structure, her abdo- 
men being much longer than that of the males, or 
neuters ; she is about eight lines and a half in 
length, while the drones are seven, and the work- 
ers six. The queen is furnished with five yellow 
rings around her abdomen, and with short wings 
that scarcely reach the third ring. She is slow in 
her movementvs, and is characterized with a great 
degree of gravity in her march. She never leaves 
the hive except in leading out a swarm. The 
government of bees is truly monarchical, as the 
will of the sovereign is law. She is the mother 
of the three different kinds of bees that inhabit a 
hive ; and it is to this prerogative that she is in- 
debted for the extreme affection she enjoys from 
her subjects. The queen being the parent of the 
hive, it is from her alone that a complete swarm, 
composed of the three different kinds of bees, can 
proceed ; and without all these different members 
no colony can long flourish. The queen deposits 



12 

a small white egg in each cell for breeding, about 
half a line long, and of the size of a tine cambric 
needle. This egg hatches into a small worm or 
lava, in about three days : a worker remains five 
days in the vermicular state ; a male six and a 
half, and a queen five. The worker's worm oc- 
cupies thirty-six hours in spinning its cocoon ; in 
three days it changes to a nymph, and on the twen- 
tieth day it becomes a perfect winged animal. 
The queen comes to perfection, after the egg has 
been laid, in sixteen days ; but the males require 
twenty-four days. Food is carried to the young 
as they require it, and great attention is paid to 
their welfare ; but when ready to be changed to a 
nymph, the workers are aware that they require 
it no longer, and prepare to seal up the cell, by a 
covering of wax of concentric circles, convex, if 
including males, and flat, if including workers. 
The same cells may be successively employed 
for the raising of workers and drones, but every 
new queen requires a new cell. Immediately on 
the loss of a queen, the hive is a scene of tumult, 
and if female eggs are not found in the hive, by 
which to repair the loss, they must infallibly per- 
ish. But if female eggs are found, the loss is 
soon repaired ; they construct one or more royal 
cells, place the eggs within the cells, and supply 
them with food, which is not the common farina 
on which the young workers feed, but a peculiar 
paste, or jelly, which is reserved for the queens 
alone. When reached to maturity, a queen comes 
forth qualified to fulfill every indispensable func- 
tion, on which so many thousand lives depend. 

The workers have the instinctive knowledge 
that they cannot, as other insects do, exist individ- 



13 

iially ; they are constructed, therefore, in so admira- 
ble a manner, as to make every thing subservient 
to the safety and comfort of the mother of the 
brood. She is in their estimation as much a part 
of themselves, as an eye or a limb. Their care 
of her is a kind of self-preservation, a law im- 
planted in every living thing. Though the queen 
lays several eggs that will be transformed into 
queens, only one can exist in one colony. If two 
come forth at the same time, one must die for the 
welfare of the colony. 

Nature has inspired queens with the most deadly 
animosity towards each other, which nothing but 
actual death can satisfy. Mr. Huber relates the 
following remarkable combat of queens : " In one 
of his hives fittest for observation, two young 
queens left their cells almost at the same moment. 
Whenever they observed each other, they rushed 
together apparently with great fury, and came into 
such a position, that the antennae were mutually 
seized by each others' fangs. The head, breast, and 
abdomen of the one were opposed to the head, 
breast, and abdomen of the other. The extremity 
of their bodies had only to be curved, that they 
might be reciprocally pierced with the stings, and 
both fall dead together. But nature has not de- 
creed that the two combatants should perish in 
the duel : when in the condition now described, 
they separate, and retreat with the utmost precip- 
itation ; and when these rivals felt their extrem- 
ities about to meet, they disengaged themselves, 
and each fled away. A few minutes after separa- 
ting, however, their mutual terror ceased, and they 
again began to seek each other. Immediately on 
coming in sight, they again rushed together, seized 
2 



14 

one another, and resumed exactly their former 
position. The result of this encounter was the 
same. During all this time, the workers were in 
great agitation ; and the tumult seemed to increase, 
when the adversaries separated. Twice they in- 
terrupted the flight of the queens, seized their 
limbs, and retained them prisoners about a min- 
ute. At last, that queen that was the strongest or 
the most enraged, darted on her rival at a moment 
when unperceived, and with her fangs took hold 
of the origin of her wing, then rising above her, 
she curved her own body, and inflicted a mortal 
wound. She withdrew her sting, and likewise 
quitted her hold of the wing she had seized : the 
vanquished queen fell down ; dragged herselt 
languidly along, and her strength declining, she 
soon expired." The antipathy manifested by 
queens, is not limited to their perfect state, for it 
extends to nymphs in the cells. That a queen 
may appear that will dispute her place in the 
hive, seems to excite suspicion, in a queen already 
come to maturity. The oldest queen in a hive 
containing several royal cells, on emerging from 
her cell, hastens to attack the cells remaining 
closed, and by dint of labor opens one of the cells, 
thrusts in her sting, and destroys her approaching 
rival. When she has left the cell, the bees drag 
forth the body of a queen scarcely come from the 
nymphine state. She then attacks and destroys 
the remaining queens in the royal cells. If two 
queens hatch about the same time, the workers use 
every exertion to keep them apart ; knowing, that 
if they come together, death must be the portion 
of one of them, they having the same affection for 
both. If the bees succeed in keeping them apart 



15 

for twenty-four hours, one of the queens usually- 
lead out a swarm, to avoid the battle. Queens 
are not reared in a hive, unless the hive be desti- 
tute, which may happen from various causes ; the 
old queen may have led out a swarm, or died 
from age or some other cause ; in either case, if 
female eggs are found in the combs, preparation is 
immediately made to supply the delect, by build- 
ing royal cells, which always hang perpendicular 
in the hive ; and this is done by sacrificing three 
of the horizontal cells, and permitting the royal 
cell to occupy their place. 

Mr. ScJ^iracJi, an eminent naturalist, supposes 
that in certain circumstances the animal destined 
to become a worker may actually be converted 
into a queen, and that this conversion is in the 
power of the bees, by means of a particular mode 
of treatment bestowed on the worm, while in an 
early stage. He thence concludes that every 
queen is originally a worker, which, without the 
particular treatment bestowed, would have re- 
mained a worker, but having undergone this treat- 
ment, it is converted to a queen, and that the bees, 
to attain this conversion, select a worm when 
three days old. 

Many celebrated writers on bees have adopted 
Schirach's notions with regard to the queen's ori- 
gin ; but in so doing we must set aside our reas- 
oning powers, and admit that the Almighty, in 
forming the bee, created them male and female 
only, and that the worker is the male and the 
drone the female ; and that the bees seeing the de- 
fect, from the egg of the drone created a sovereign. 
This may appear to the reader to be rather strong 
language, but if we admit the one, we must sub- 
mit to the other. When a queen bee ceases to 



16 

animate the hive, the bees are conscious of her 
loss ; after searching for her through the hive for 
a day or more, they examine the royal cells, 
which are of a peculiar construction and reversed 
in position, hanging vertically, with the mouth 
underneath. If no eggs or larva are to be found 
in these cells, they then enlarge several of those 
which are appropriated to the eggs of neuters, and 
ni which queen eggs have been deposited. They 
soon attach a royal cell to the enlarged surface, 
and the queen bee, enabled now to grow, protrudes 
itself by degrees into the royal cell, and comes out 
perfectly formed, to the great pleasure of the bees. 

Now this in itself is curious and wonderful. 
There is no need of adding superhuman powers 
to an insect, when the simple facts show such sin- 
gular sagacity. The truth is, that the queen or 
mother bee lays the neuter eggs in certain cells of 
a peculiar construction ; in fact, the eggs are laid, 
at least many of them, as soon as the foundations 
are begun, before the cells are built. The bees 
know from the peculiar shape of the egg that it is 
to have a cell of certain dimensions. When the 
neuter and drone eggs are deposited, the royal 
cells are then filled, for abundant observations 
prove that the queen eggs are laid last. 

If the royal cells are not suiBcient to hold 
the queen eggs, they are laid in the common 
cells, and in the course of the regular business of 
the hive, these cells are attended to with the rest. 

When the larva is of a size to fill the cell, a 
covering of wax is put on, and here ends the life, 
or rather the embryo, of the queen ; for no longer 
having room to expand, it perishes, and is dragged 
out in the nymph form, as soon as the bees dis- 
cover that animation is extinct. 



17 

If, during- the progress of the egg from the lar- 
va to the nymph state, the mother queen dies, 
and there are uo eggs in the royal cells, then the 
bees have recourse to the queen eggs that are laid 
in the common cells. By enlarging the entrance, 
and by attaching to it a cell which hangs vertically, 
they continue the life of the larva, and a queen 
bee is formed. Here is no work of transforma- 
tion. The insect is already formed, and nothing 
remains to be done but the mere mechanical ope- 
ration of building a habitation which shall be ad- 
equate to its wants. 

The peculiar organic construction of the queen 
bee undoubtedly requires a difference of food, as 
we perceive it does of dwelling. 

No doubt it is necessary to supply it more 
abundantly, and v/ith greater care. The very po- 
sition it is compelled to take, shows that it requires 
a different kind of nurture, from either the com- 
mon bee or the drone. It is wonderful that in- 
stinct is so competent to direct these changes ; 
but it would be more wonderful if, in addition to 
this instinct, the bee had the power to construct 
neiD organs^ as it does different cells, and, thus to 
endow the insect with a different nature. 

Another point unsettled, and which is likely to 
remain forever a secret, is, whether the eggs of the 
queen are hatched after the manner of the eggs of 
fish, whether they simply are animated by incuba- 
tion, or by the care and nourishment bestowed on 
them by the working or neuter bees. 

On this point experiment has proved nothing. 
The greatest diversity of opinion exists. There 
are upwards of a thousand writers on the history 
2* 



18 

and policy of the bee, yet no two have either ob- 
served or reasoned alike. 

The fecundity of the queen is surprising. Swam- 
merdam affirms, that she contains fifty tliousand 
eggs ; and some authors advance that she may be 
the mother of one hundred thousand bees in one 
season. She is marked by peculiarities in addi- 
tion to her propagating young, of the most con- 
spicuous description. She has every attention 
paid her that her situation demands. Groups of 
the workers constantly encircle her ; they brush 
and lick her limbs, feed her honey ; whenever she 
moves they accompany her ; and, according to 
the united sentiments of all, who have studied the 
nature of bees, pay her what would be real hom- 
age, could we allow them the prerogative of un- 
derstanding. In short, the only security of the 
workers, is the permanent existence of a queen. 



THE WORKING BEES, OR NEUTERS. 

The natural history of the bee furnishes much 
useful instruction to the human mind. The means 
which the Almighty has chosen for the preserva- 
tion of bees, is particularly observable. 

The mothers, which in almost all other instan- 
ces are the watchful and tender nurses of their 
young, we find in this instance, only give them 
birth. The duty of rearing is committed to sub- 
stitutes, the workers : and they are as affectionate 
towards the young of their species, as real mothers 
of other animals. The workers have been sup- 



19 

posed by some to belong to neither sex ; but 
Reini, Huber, and others, by particular experi- 
ments, confirmed the fact that some of that class 
may lay fertile eggs, which produce male bees 
only. 

The working bees are much less in size than 
the queens or drones ; they are armed with a 
formidable weapon, a sting, which strikes terror 
into the heart of man or beast, and when irritated, 
are very free to make use of it. It is the workers 
on which the welfare of the hive very much de- 
pends. Without their aid, the males, females, 
and even brood, would soon perish. And while 
the presence of the queen is necessary to their 
safety, they are no less requisite to her preserva- 
tion. It is the workers that procure the honey, 
by their incessant labor, produce the wax, con- 
struct the combs, and furnish pollen or bee-bread 
for the brood. While some are collecting honey, 
others are collecting pollen, and others guarding 
the hive ; others seldom or never leave the hive, 
but seem constantly engaged within ; they seem 
to be endowed with a peculiar instinct, directing 
each one its different task, and without a sufficient 
number of this class, no colony can possibly pros- 
per. It is the part assigned to the workers also, 
to clean and prepare the cells appropriated for 
the embryos, of their own kind, of the queen, and 
of the drones. After the queen has deposited her 
eggs, she has no more concern for their welfare, 
but assigns the task of rearing the young to the 
workers, which furnish them with pollen, feed 
them, water, nourish, and keep them warm. A 
certain degree of animal heat is required, to pro- 
duce the young, which the bees have the power 



20 

to regulate, in a well constructed hive, by cluster- 
ing by numbers about the cells, more or less as the 
temperature of the hive requires. If a stranger 
bee, wasp, or noxious insect appear, it is soon re- 
pelled, or destroyed. It is a part of their economy 
to procure a resinous substance called propolis, or 
bee glue, with which they seal all crevices about 
the hive, to seclude air and insects. Some of 
Ihem act the part of scavengers, by clearing every 
thing offensive from the hive ; such carcasses as 
are too large for them to remove they embalm, or 
cover with a thick layer of wax, or glue, under 
which they may remain, without causing any of- 
fensive effluvia. 

Such is the peculiar instinct of bees, that not a 
single inhabitant of another hive is allowed to 
obtrude himself, but is seized on as a robber and 
instantly killed. Bees have a sort of language 
among themselves whereby they know each oth- 
ers' wants ; as in feeding each other, (fcc. They 
also will sound the alarm when any thing dis- 
turbs them; and such sounds will be instantly 
understood, and answered by the whole colony. 
If swarms are not immediately removed after 
they alight, messengers are sent to look a suitable 
dwelUng place for the colony; on their return 
the intelligence is communicated to the colony, 
and such is their understanding, that the whole 
colony rise high into the air, and follow in a di- 
rect line with rapid flight, to the place selected 
by their comrades ; if no place is found suitable 
for a dwelling, they return at night, and another 
company are sent in search the next morning. 
If bees are not allowed to possess any thing anal- 
ogous to reason, the regard for their queen, and 



21 

the watchful care of their young, must result from 
some pleasurable sensations. 

After a particular season of the year, the drones 
are killed off, by those very workers, which form- 
erly watched over them so carefully in their cra- 
dles. 

It is in the months of July and August, that 
this singular massacre is effected. Huber, desir- 
ous of witnessing the scene of carnage, placed 
six hives on a glass table, and placed himself and 
an assistant beneath it. On the fourth of July, 
the workers actually massacred the males in the 
whole six hives, at the same hour, and with the 
same peculiarities. The glass table was covered 
with bees, full of animation, which flew on the 
drones, seized them by their antennae, the wings 
and limbs, and after having dragged them about, 
they killed the unfortunate victims, by repeated 
stings directed between the wings of the abdomen. 
The moment that the formidable weapon touched 
them, was the last of their existence ; they 
stretched their wings and expired. Whilst the 
season continues favorable for the collection of 
honey, bees labor from the dawn of day till eve- 
ning ; that they never cease to fill their magazines 
with honey, is not from a foreknowledge that a 
season is approaching, when their harvest will be 
denied them, but they are furnished by nature 
with the means of obtaining their food without 
thinking, or being capable of thinking of any 
precautions necessary for that purpose. Their 
nature requires that they gather honey and wax ; 
they apply themselves during the season of flow« 
ers with the greatest assiduity, and on the return 
of winter their combs are filled with the " luscious 



22 

hoard." Reaumur has calculated that within one 
hour three thousand bees have returned from their 
collections to a hive whose population did not ex- 
ceed eighteen thousand, and Swammerdam found 
nearly four thousand cells constructed in six days, 
by a new swarm which did not exceed six thou- 
sand bees. It is not uncommon among us, for a 
single swarm to collect from eighty to one hundred 
pounds of honey in a favorable season. What as- 
tonishing industry ! Bees collect some part of 
their honey from what is called honey-dew. This 
is an exudation found on the leaves of trees in 
very hot, sultry weather. The oak and the ches- 
nut are the principal trees which produce this sub- 
stance in any quantity. Repeated observations 
prove that the secretion of honey is powerfully in- 
fluenced by the electricity of the atmosphere, and 
bees never labor more actively than during sul- 
try weather^ and when a storm is approaching. 
The odor exhaled from the hives, and the size 
of the bees, are sure indications whether the flow- 
ers contain honey. Bees are able to store up 
quantities of pollen when the flowers are destitute 
of honey, which is necessary for feeding their 
young ; part of it is immediately given to them, 
and the remainder stored up in the cells. The 
harvest of honey is early or later, more abundant 
or scarce, in different years, according to season, 
and variety of climate, and situation. Sometimes 
bees will continue in active labor during Septem- 
ber, and collect pollen till late in October, if frost 
does not prevent. On taking up a hive a few 
years ago, says a writer, the body of a mouse was 
found entirely encased in propolis, and so effectu- 
ally embalmed by their own material as to exclude 



23 



atmospheric air, and to obviate the possibility of 
annoyance from putrefaction. 

" Embalmed in shroud of glue, the mummy lies — 



REMEDY FOR STINGS OF BEES. 

Stings of bees are not often attended with seri- 
ous consequences, though, when very numerous, 
may be considered dangerous. 

The first point to be attended to, is to extract the 
sting. The poison ejected into the wound is an 
acid, and is neutralized by alkalies. 

The most simple and effectual remedy is the 
common table salt. This article may be applied 
to the wound as soon as the sting is extracted, a 
little moistened, and it aifords immediate relief, and 
soon abates the swelling. Volatile spirit of am- 
monia, if applied immediately, relieves the pain 
ahuost instantaneously, and if the stings be nume- 
rous, should be taken internally, in doses of twenty 
or thirty drops, every few hours. 



OF DRONES AND WORKERS. 

A remarkable irregularity subsists in the num- 
ber of drones, compared with other inhabitants 
of a hive. " Swammerdam found 693, along with 
8494 workers. Previous to the swarming of a 
large hive, Reaumur counted 700 among 26,000 
common bees, and one queen. In another, con- 
taining only 2900 workers, he found 693 drones. 



24 

He computed 50,000 cells, in the former of which 
20.000 were filled with brood. About 2520 cells 
were appropriated for breeding drones, and above 
half of them were occupied by larva and nymphs. 
Thus, including the 700 in the perfect state, he ob- 
serves that this hive would be provided with 
abov^e 2000 drones." 

An elegant and experienced apiarian in the 
North American Review for October, 1828, reputed 
to be Mrs. Mary Griffith, of New Brunswick, 
New Jersey, observes that " the average number of 
a hive, or swarm, is from fifteen to twenty thou- 
sand bees. Nineteen thousand four hundred and 
ninety-nine are neuters, or workers, five hundred 
are drones, and the remaining one is the queen, or 
mother." 

Bees, not unfrequently, rob each other. A 
courageous swarm will sometimes attack and de- 
stroy a neighboring colony, even at a considerable 
distance, and in a single day, carry off the whole 
stock of honey to their own hive, compelling the 
subjugated bees to assist in the spoil. And it some- 
times happens that a swarm deficient in honey, 
abandons its hive and seeks shelter in another, to 
relieve its necessities. Weak and feeble hives are 
commonly the objects of attack. Whenever an 
attack is made on a hive, the planes should be so 
nearly closed as not to admit of egress or ingress 
of the bees ; the hive being thus protected, the 
hive belonging to the robbers should be sought, 
which may be easily found by sprinkling a little 
flour upon the robbers about the hive, who will 
soon return to their own hive, bearing marks of 
roguery. Then with a stick mutilate the comb of 
the robbers, by breaking it in different parts of the 



25 

hive. This being done, the robbers will be occu- 
pied in repairing their loss at home ; then open 
the planes of the attacked hive, and suffer the 
prisoners, if any, to return to their own home. 
This done, the attacked hive may be removed a 
few rods from its original standing place, and there 
remain in perfect safety. 

It seems to be a matter of doubt among apiarians, 
whether bees enjoy the sense of hearing ; but their 
organs of sight appear to be very perfect. A bee, 
on its departure from the hive, makes several evolu- 
tions, and then rising in the air, flies in a straight 
line to the flowery field, and having made its col- 
lection, it again rises aloft, and returns in a per- 
fectly straight line, with great velocity, and recog- 
nizes its own hive amid numerous others resem- 
bling it. The sense of smell enjoyed by bees, is 
supposed to answer their purpose in traversing the 
fields in search of flowers, even though several 
miles distant. Their sense of smell is supposed 
to be so acute as to scent a field of buckwheat at 
the distance of five miles. 



CONSTRUCTION OF COMBS AND CELLS. 

On examining the interior of a bee hive, the 
view presented to the beholder is of the most in- 
teresting character. The curious eye can never 
be weary of examining these curious work-shops, 
where thousands are employed in the various de- 
partments, for the common good. We are struck 
in a particular manner with the regularity and 
exactness observable in their works ; their maga- 
zines replenished with every necessary for the 
support of the society during winter ; and we be- 
hold with wonder and pleasure the young brood 
in their cradles, and the tender care of their nurs- 
3 



26 

ing mothers towards them. The coi^struction of 
these cells, or cradles, is executed with so much 
art, and the ground-work and form so skillfully- 
contrived, that it must be viewed as an excellent 
specimen of geometry. The structure of these 
cells is the best adapted for containing the greatest 
possible quantity in the least possible space — and 
have excited admiration in every contemplative 
mind. The cells are of a hexagonal form ; the 
circumference of one makes a part of the circum- 
ference of another ; were they contrived in any 
other shape, there could not be so many cells of 
equal capaciousness in the same given space. 

These cells, which are very thin, are strength- 
ened at the entrance by a fillet of wax, and also 
at the bottom, by the angle of one falling in the 
middle of its opposite. 

There are in every hive different sorts of combs, 
adapted to the different sorts of bees which are to 
be bred in them. The cells constructed for breed- 
ing drones are considerable larger than those in- 
tended for workers. Those intended for females, 
or queens, are of a very peculiar form, and fashioned 
with great labor and skill. 

The royal cells are of a pyramidal form, with 
a wide base, and a long diminished top. They 
hang perpendicular in the hive, the point down- 
wards, 'i'he cells for the drones are three and 
one third lines in diameter ; those of the workers 
are two and three fifths lines, and these are inva- 
riably the dimensions observed in all hives. 

A number of cells united constitute the comb, 
formed in parallel sheets. Reaumur calculated 
that a comb twelve and a half inches square would 
contain 9000 cells. The primary object of the 
cells seems to be for propagating the young ; after 
these have gained maturity, they are cleaned out 



27 

and filled with honey ; but there are cells, also, 
destined for this purpose from the beginning. The 
same cells may be employed for several successive 
broods, and when the whole have come to perfec- 
tion, they are appropriated for the winter stores. 
In the shape and size of the comb, bees are guided 
by circumstances : a small cavity is totally filled 
with equal combs, in parallel sheets ; while in one 
of greater dimensions, there may be some large, 
and others not one fourth of the size. 

It may appear singular how bees can fill a hori- 
zontal cell quite full of honey, and yet prevent it 
from escaping. Perhaps it is partly retained by 
its own viscosity, and from adhesion to the sides 
of a tube of such small diameter. Each cell is 
sealed with aflat covering of wax, most ingeniously 
devised. A circle is formed round the mouth of 
the cell, which is gradually diminished by other 
concentric circles, until the aperture remains a point 
capable of being filled by a single grain of wax. 
Thus we see the combs and cells constructed with 
profound skill, seeming to display the work of a 
geometrician. It is self-evident that here the 
geometrician is the author of the insect. 



WAX, HONEY, AND BEE BREAD. 

A variety of experiments render it certain that 
wax is produced from pure honey. In ascertain- 
ing the mode by which wax was produced from 
honey, Huber confined a swarm of bees in a straw 
hive, to an apartment along with a quantity of 
honey and water, necessary for their subsistence. 
The honey was exhausted in five days, and five 
combs of snow-white wax were then found sus- 
pended from the arch of the hive. Lest this 
might have been the produce of the farina carried 



28 

in by the bees when their confinement commenced, 
all the combs were removed, and the imprison- 
ment of the bees repeated. But the result was the 
same ; they formed other five combs of the finest 
and whitest wax. 

Honey is the richest extracts from the finest 
flowers. It is a vegetable secretion which appears 
at different seasons of the year, especially when 
flowers in g^eneral are in blossom. The bees 
hck it from the flowers with their tongue 
and probossis ; it is swallowed, and on their re- 
turn to the hive is disgorged, not from the trunk, 
but from the mouth, into the cells. The best sort 
of honey is made from the white clover and mign- 
onette, from which it is produced in great abun- 
dance ; it is of a whitish color, inclining to yellow, 
of a thick consistence, possessing an agreeable 
smell, and a pleasant taste. The comb first made 
by a swarm, is of the purest and most delicate 
white, and the honey which it contains is light 
colored, and of delicious flavor, and is called vir- 
gin honey. 

Honey is the source of wax, and the food of 
bees. Being a vegetable production, the quantity 
of honey depends entirely on the nature of the 
plants from which it is produced. Honey pro- 
duced from buckwheat is of a reddish color, thin, 
transparent, and of an unpleasant flavor. It is 
produced in great abundance. It is not uncom- 
mon for a single swarm to increase the weight of 
their hive, during the season of buckwheat, which 
continues from the first of August to the middle 
of September, from thirty to forty pounds. 

Bee bread, during the spring, summer, and 
till late in the fall, is brought home by the bees in 
the hollow of their legs. This is the farina, of 
pollen, obtained from various sorts of flowers or 



29 

plants. This was formerly supposed to be wax ; 
but it is now known that no principal of wax 
resides in pollen ; it is collected solely for the pur- 
pose of feeding the young brood, and the perfect 
bees never live upon it ; but the workers take it, 
grain by grain, in their teeth, and transmit it to the 
mouths of the larva. Honey, in the comb, may 
be kept in the drawers in which it is made, during 
the whole winter, allowing it to remain exactly as 
the bees formed it. To separate honey from the 
comb, let it be cut in small pieces, and suspended 
near the fire, in a canvas bag. The wax may be 
purified by putting the comb, tied up in a linen or 
woolen bag, into a vessel of water, over the fire ; 
as the heat increases, the wax liquifies, and esca- 
ping through the bag, rises to the surface ; it may 
be skimmed off", while the refuse is retained be- 
hind. It may be well to place some weight on, or 
in the bag, to prevent it from rising to the surface. 



SWARMING. 

There seems to be no satisfactory reason given, 
by authors, for the swarming of bees. It is gene- 
rail y supposed that swarming ensues in conse- 
quence of the hive being overstocked with num- 
bers, and from a young queen seeking a new dwell- 
ing, where she may be placed in " royal state," at 
the head of a colony. It is seldom that bees 
swarn from a hive until it is filled, or nearly filled. 
Still, the want of room cannot, in all instances, 
be the sole cause of swarming; and, instead of a 
young queen, it is always the old queen that leads 
out a swarm, and the same old queen that leads 
out a swarm this year, will lead out a swarm from 
her new habitation the next year. An old queen 
never leaves the hive until she has deposited eggs 
o 



30 



that will become new qneens, nor until her prin- 
cipal laying of eggs, producing drones, is over. 

Bees usually swarm from the 10th of May to 
the middle of July ; early swarms are of the most 
value. A swarm of bees in May, in the Self-pro- 
tecting Hive, is worth, to the possessor, at least fifty 
dollars, the interest of which is at six per cent, 
three dollars. Now, suppose the hive to yield, 
the first season, thirty pounds of surplus honey, 
which is always of virgin whiteness, worth in our 
market twenty-five cents the pound, which is seven 
dollars and fifty cents. Suppose the hive to cost 
one dollar and fifty cents, which is the actual cost, 
if well made, of good materials. We have now 
a balance of three dollars, after deducting interest 
and cost of hive. The estimate of surplus honey 
is very low ; I have already taken thirty-five 
pounds each, (the 1st of August,) from many of 
my May swarms. We have left a balance of 
three dollars, to pay the trouble of hiving, winter- 
ing, &c. Suppose our stock of bees to send out a 
swarm, on the 20th of May next ; our stock is 
now doubled, or worth 100 dollars. It is reason- 
able to expect second swarms enough to defray 
subsequent expenses. We may now calculate our 
stock of bees to double every subsequent season, 
as well as the surplus honey. Let us calculate 
this increase of property for five years. On the 
first of October, the first year, we have two stocks 
of bees, worth one hundred dollars, or fifty dol- 
lars each, besides sixty pounds of surplus, or 
drawer honey ; and by this ratio at the end of five 
years we have thirty-two stocks of bees, according 
to the former estimate worth 1600 dollars, besides 
30 pounds of surplus honey from each hive, each 
season, amounting to 1860 pounds of virgin honey ; 
allowing 20 cents a pound to be the wholesale 



31 



price, worth 372 dollars, which, added to onr 
stock of bees, is 1972 dollars, — a very handsome 
capital acquired by judicious management and a 
very small amount of labor. 

We have now enlarged our stock of bees to as 
many hives as would be profitable to keep in one 
apiary. We are now prepared to sell thirty stocks 
of bees every subsequent season, at the selling 
price, (not at the real worth,) which is about ten 
dollars the hive, in the Self-protecting Hive, 
amounting to ^300, together with 900 lbs. of 
virgin honey, at 20 cents, amounting to $180, 
making a yearly increase of $480. And this may 
be done by the man that owns one acre of land, as 
well as by the man that owns one hundred acres. 

The best and most cogent reason given for 
second swarms is, that after the old queen has lead 
out a swarm, the remaining bees finding themselves 
without a leader, prepare lo erect royal cells, and 
raise young queens to repair their loss. They se- 
lect female eggs, (which the old queen always 
leaves the hive abundantly supplied with, on lead- 
ing out a sv/arm,) and place them in the royal 
cells, feed them royal jelly, and in about twelve 
days are supplied with one young queen, or more. 
If more than one queen is produced, the queen that 
first leaves the cell, often leads out a second swarm, 
to avoid a battle with its expected rival. Second 
swarms usually appear in about twelve days after 
the first swarm. 

It may be very accurately ascertained whether 
a second swarm may be expected by hearkening at 
the entrance of the hive the evening before the 
swarm appears. If a second swarm is to issue, a 
distinct sound will be heard from each of the 
queens, consisting of monotonous notes, replying 
to each other, called sounding the alarm. This 



32 

sound may usually be heard about eighteen hours 
before swarming. Third swarms may be expected 
in about three days after the second swarm, which 
should always be returned either to the old stock, 
or to the second swarm. This may be easily done 
by taking away their queen ; and by placing them 
at the entrance of either hive, they eagerly enter. 

One chief cause or concomitant of swarming, 
says Huber, apparently consists in the agitation of 
the queen. She is suddenly affected, hastily trav- 
erses the combs, abandoning that slow and steady 
progression which she ordinarily exhibits ; her 
agitation is communicated to the bees ; they crowd 
to the outlet of the hive, and the queen escaping 
first, they haste to follow her. 

Commonly, the whole take but a short flight, 
and the queen having alighted, they all cluster 
around her. This constitutes the new swarm. 
Huber states that the agitation of the female ex- 
cites the workers, which increases their animal 
heat, and raises the temperature of the hive to such 
an insupportable degree, that they are compelled 
to leave it. On issuing from the hive, bees appear 
to have no object in view. 

After rising in the air, it is commonly some 
shrub, or tree, that arrests their progress, and 
whenever the queen alights, the bees will cluster 
around her. They hang in this situation, usual- 
ly, until some cavity or hollow tree has been se- 
lected for them to inhabit, when they loose their 
hold, fly high in the air, and direct themselves iu 
a straight line to their new habitation. 



THE BEST CONSTRUCTED HIVE. 

Hall's Patent Self-protecting Hive is to be pre- 
ferred above all others, particularly for an out- 



33 



door's hive. The easy management, the perfect 
simplicity of its construction, and the happy ef- 
fects produced by the double inclined plane, in 
discharging all filth that falls upon it, in ventila- 
ting the hive, in furnishing an easy and conven- 
ient place for the bees to alight and enter at the 
leeward of the hive, and also the very convenient 
manner in which the surplus honey may be taken, 
by means of drawers and sliders, without being 
exposed to the danger of a single sting, render it 
highly desirable by every apiarian acquainted 
with it. 

The above hive is made of seasoned inch boards, 
twelve inches and a half square on the outside, 
fourteen inches deep, from the chamber to the 
protector. The chamber is six inches, and the 
protector or base is four inches, making the whole 
height of the hive two feet. 'The chamber is 
furnished with two communicating drawers, with 
glass ends in front, designed for taking the surplus 
honey, without destroying a single bee. The 
drawers, when filled, may be carefully taken out at 
the rear of the hive, by opening the door and in- 
serting two right angled slides, carefully taking 
one of the sliders out with the drawer, to prevent 
the bees from issuing out of the drawer ; and let- 
ting the other slider remain, to prevent the bees 
from rushing into the chamber, until an empty 
drawer is inserted. \ Carry the drawer taken out 
into a cellar or some dark place ; then by opening 
a window, and by placing the communication 
aperture toward the light, the bees will soon escape 
and return to the hive, leaving the honey for the 
owner. The body of the hive consists of a per- 
pendicular box of the common form, furnished 
with two cross bars or supporters in the centre ; 
in the chamber floor are two or more apertures, 



34 

corresponding exactly with apertures in the 
drawers above, to enable the bees to enter the 
drawers. If the body of the hive is filled, the 
drawers, if filled, are taken out, and others inserted 
in their stead ; but if it is not, one or both of the 
drawers are suffered to remain for the benefit of 
the bees, according to circumstances. The base 
or protector consists of a square frame without 
top or bottom, of the exact size of the hive, about 
four inches deep, on which the hive rests, being 
connected and held in place by dowels and hooks. 
The front and rear sides of the base are narrower 
by about an inch than the other sides, leaving 
room at the bottom for the play of the inclined 
planes, which form a bottom for the hive, consist- 
ing of two inclined planes, slanting from the top of 
the base to the bottom. These inclined planes con- 
sist of boards hung within the box of the base, on 
pivots passing through the sides near the top edge 
of the centre of the sides, and extending below the 
lower edge of the base in front and rear, with a play 
of about half an inch, to admit freely the egress and 
ingress of the bees, as well as the discharge of filth. 
The cap or top of the hive should project about 
an inch, to discharge the water without injuring 
the hive. The hive should hang in a frame by 
cleats, made fast to the sides of the hive and nail- 
ed to the chamber floor. This frame, in which the 
hive should be suspended about two feet from the 
ground, may be made of four posts four feet high, 
with suitable cleats for the hive to rest upon, and 
also to brace the posts. 

The above described hive should be made of 
good deal boards free from flaws and cracks, and 
perfectly smooth inside and outside, with the ex- 
ception of the under side of the chamber floor, 
which should be left rough, that the bees may bo 



35 

enabled to hold the weight of their swarm, when 
first entering the hive. If made perfectly smooth, 
the weight of the swarm will cause them to fall, 
thereby irritating them, and sometimes causing 
them to leave the hive. The old fashioned clum- 
sy hives, so formed that the honey cannot be ta- 
ken out without destroying the bees, should be 
forever discarded. 

Much has been said of the fittest size of a hive. 
The Self-protecting Hive, as described above, is of 
sufficient size for ordinary purposes. The body 
of the hive contains about 35 pounds of honey, 
and the drawers about 20 pounds. The body of 
the hive contains a sufficient quantity to supply 
the largest swarm during winter, and is of the 
most suitable size to produce swarms. In very 
large hives bees seldom swarm, and if at all, usu- 
ally very late, rendering the swarm of but little 
worth. Some are in favor of very large hives, in 
order to prevent swarming, but such are persons 
usually of but little experience as apiarians. True, 
some may keep bees merely out of curiosity, but 
generally the principal object is profit. If, in the 
cultivation of bees, profit is thought of, they 
should be suffered to swarm at least once in each 
season, and be furnished with suitable sized hives 
for that purpose. Many of my hives swarm twice, 
and I am very glad to have them do so. Second 
swarms, if obtained by the 10th of June, although 
small at first, soon increase in numbers, fill their 
hive and make as good stocks for wintering as first 
swarms. 

Nature has designed that bees should swarm. 
" My own experiment," says Dr. Thatcher, " the 
past summer, affords no encouragement to prose- 
cute the scheme of interrupting the natural swarm- 
ing of bees. Having placed empty hives in con- 



36 

tact with those containing bees, with apertures of 
communication, they occupied the hives as draw- 
ing rooms, during the summer, and prevented 
swarms forming ; but in autumn they all returned 
to the parent hives, having made no comb, except 
a small quantity in one of the hives. The prin- 
cipal is a substantial one, that bees will not pros- 
per unless they are furnished with queens, and 1 
am not endowed with the gracious prerogative of 
elevating females to thrones." Let us suppose a 
swarm of bees to be put into a hive of sufficient 
capaciousness to prevent its swarming. At the 
end of five years, allowing the swarm to yield fif- 
ty pounds of surplus honey each year, which is a 
fair estimate, we have two hundred and fifty 
pounds of honey, and one swarm. Now let us 
compare this with our former estimate, allowing 
swarms to issue. In our former estimate, allowing 
the bees to swarm, at the end of five years we 
have thirty-two swarms, besides eighteen hundred 
and sixty pounds of surplus honey ; leaving a 
balance of thirty-one swarms and sixteen hundred 
and ten pounds of surplus honey in favor of 
swarming. 

HIVING SWARMS, AND TRANSFERRING BEES 
FROM ONE HIVE TO ANOTHER. 

In the season of swarming, constant watchful- 
ness should be kept over the apiary ; if it con- 
sist of a considerable number of hives, several 
swarms may be expected every fair day. Suit- 
able hives should be in readiness to receive the 
swarms, furnished with drawers and perfectly 
tight and clean in every part. Nothing is lost by 
employing good workmen to make your bee-hives ; 
they should be made of good materials, and 



37 

thoroughly painted. Pine or butternut boards 
may be considered preferable to any other. It 
has commonly been the practice of apiarians to 
rub the inside of the hive with various kinds of 
herbs, a solution of salt and water, honey, rum, 
and various other substances. All they require 
is a clean, dry hive, of a proper size. 

Hives and drawers should be made all of one 
size, so that one drawer may fit every hive ; there- 
by saving much inconvenience in furnishing the 
hive with a second set of drawers. Place a table 
near where the swarm alights, in the shade, and 
when they are quietly settled on a branch of a 
tree or shrub, one person may hold the hive with 
the protector taken oflf directly under the swarm, 
and an assistant give the branch a sudden shake, 
by which the bees fall into the hive ; or if the 
branch be small and of little worth, a better way 
is to place the table directly under the swarm; 
then with a saw or knife sever the branch from 
the tree, place it on the table and set the hive im- 
mediately over it ; the hive should be raised a few 
inches from the table, by placing sticks upon it, 
to allow the scattering bees to enter. If the 
swarm should settle on some inconvenient place, 
as the post of a fence, trunk of a tree, or eaves 
of a house, the bees must be carefully brushed 
into the hive with a wing or broom, and the hive 
immediately placed upon the table raised by sticks, 
as before. It not unfrequently happens, that from 
some dislike of the hive the bees return to the 
branch from which they were taken, even the 
second and third time. 

Should they return to the parent hive, they 
will issue from it again in a few days. It some- 
times happens that two swarms issue from diifer- 
ent hives at the same time and alight together. 
4 



38 

These may be put into one hive, and the queens 
decide which shall have the sovereignty. At 
evening the hive should be carefully placed upon 
the protector, hooked up, and carried to the place 
where it is to hang ; the planes should be then 
unhooked and opened about half an inch, to ven- 
tilate the hive, and also to admit the free passage 
of the bees. Although bees indicate less disposi- 
tion to sting during swarming than at any other 
time, persons hiving them should be provided 
with a dress that will effectually secure them from 
their stings, and particular care should be taken 
not to injure or irritate them. The most conven- 
ient defense will be a covering of millenet or 
other open stuff, put over a hat enclosing the 
whole head and neck, and a pair of woolen gloves 
drawn up over the wrist. When approaching 
bees, the smoke arising from tobacco or burning 
leather, is the most effectual means of rendering 
them mild and harmless. The human breath is 
very offensive to bees ; breathing on them excites 
their greatest rage ; but you may blow upon them 
with bellows without offense. Should bees on 
any occasion make an assault on a person, it will 
avail nothing to fight or oppose them, but stand 
quietly in one position or walk moderately away 
from them. 

It is very important to have large strong swarms 
in a hive, and when a swarm is loo small, two or 
more should be united. If the old stock should be 
in the common box hive, it may be transferred to 
the hive containing the second swarm, thereby 
saving the honey in the old hive, and furnishing 
a good stock of bees for the new. This may be 
done by turning the old hive bottom upwards, 
and immediately placing the mouth of the hive 
containing the second swarm, with the protector 



39 

taken oiF, above the old hive, at the same time 
corking some tow or rags between the hives, to 
prevent the bees rushing out, if the mouths do 
not exactly fit ; then by a continued rapping on 
the sides of the old hive,, the bees will ascend and 
join the young colony. In about the space of 
half an hour the new hive may be taken off, the 
protector hooked on and placed in the exact situ- 
ation of the old hive. The old hive may now be 
removed a few rods and remain bottom upwards 
for the ni^ht ; in the morning, by rapping again 
upon the sides of the old hive, if any bees remain 
they will immediately fly to, and enter the new 
hive, or if the bees refuse to leave the old hive, it 
may be taken in pieces and the bees carefully 
brushed from the combs, and the honey removed 
to some place of deposit ; in the last case the 
only resort for the bees is to join the new colony, 
which is immediately done. Bees may be trans- 
ferred to empty hives in the same manner as to 
hives containing bees. In either case care should 
be taken to place the new hive in the exact situa- 
tion of the old. The prosperity of the colony de- 
pends much on the time of transferring. The 
time of transferring to an empty hive, should be 
in about fifteen days after the first swarm has is- 
sued, that the hive may be furnished with a queen 
to govern the colony. If transferred before the 
colony is furnished with a queen, the bees will 
soon disappear ; either join a neighboring colony 
or die. I have this season taken four stocks of 
bees from my own apiary, and transferred them 
to empty hives with perfect success. Transfer- 
ring should be done as early in the season as 
practicable, that the bees may be enabled to gather 
honey sufficient for wintering. 

In every apiary, the empty hives should be 



40 

weighed and marked, that the quantity of honey- 
within may be ascertained. 

The practical directions given by writers for 
the weight of a good swarm, are not, perhaps, 
perfectly correct ; writers differ in regard to the 
number required to weigh a pound. A swarm 
weighing four pounds, is supposed to contain 
about twenty thousand bees, and the best swarms 
seldom weigh more than six pounds. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 

Artificial swarms may be produced by taking 
brood comb from the lower part of the hive, in 
the month of April, or first part of May. The 
comb taken, should contain brood three days old 
or less ; place it in one or both of the drawers in a 
perpendicular position, then remove the old hive 
some distance from the apiary, place the new hive 
containing the brood, where the old one hung in 
the apiary. The bees now returning from the 
field, and finding a hive like that which they had 
left, lodge themselves there, nourish the brood, 
and from the brood, produce a queen and prosper. 
Swarms formed thus early, have all the advan- 
tages of early blossoms, and although few in 
numbers at first, after being furnished with their 
new queen increase rapid, and in a good season 
make a tolerable stock hive. 



SITUATION OF AN APIARY. 

An apiary should be situated in a quiet place, 
where the bees may perform their labors undis- 



41 

turbed. It should not be encompassed by high 
walls, or thickets, which would impede the pro- 
gress of the bees on their return heavy laden to 
their hives. The ground about the hives should 
be kept clear of weeds and grass, which afford a 
harbor for vermin. The apiary should be situated 
at a convenient distance from the dwelling-house, 
that it may receive the required attention. For 
the facility of swarming and hiving, it is better to 
have low trees and flowering shrubs, than lofty 
trees, in the vicinity. It is unimportant whether 
any particular direction be selected, as bees will 
flourish and make their collections, whatever be 
the position of their dwelling. 

Those who desire great profit from an extensive 
bee establishment, should cultivate in their gardens 
such plants as afford honey in the greatest abund- 
ance. The first to be mentioned is mignonette : 
this affords honey in great abundance, and of the 
finest quality. Broomwich, an experienced apia- 
rian, relates that in the year 1779, he planted a 
great quantity of it in front of two bee-hives, at a 
considerable distance from any other bees. In 
September he took the honey and found it to ex- 
ceed, by above a third, what he obtained from any 
other two of his best hives, where the bees were 
obliged to fly further, and it was equal in color and 
fragrance to honey from any country. Another 
plant rich in nectary, is the Crocus, in its various 
species. 

Water is an essential article among bees ; they 
cannot subsist and nourish the young brood, des- 
titute of water. When running brooks are not 
found near an apiary, small shallow rivulets should 
be provided for their use, with small stones or 
sticks for them to stand upon. 

The best constructed apiary that has met my 
4* 



42 

eye, is my own. My apiary is three feet wide, 
with corner posts set about two feet in the ground, 
to prevent it from blowing over: the posts are 
about four feet high from the surface of the ground, 
with plates and double roof; two girders, one on 
each side, are placed about two feet four inches 
from the under side of the plates ; standards are 
morticed into the girders, with ties on the top for 
the cleats on the sides of the hives to rest upon ; 
these standards are thirteen inches apart, to receive 
the hives between them, and twenty inches high 
above the girders ; the space between the hives is 
about twelve inches ; the floor rests upon a groove 
in the girders, which I take out during the warm 
season"; at the sides are doors that may be taken 
away or closed at pleasure ; the ends are thorough- 
ly boarded up as low as the girders, and the whole 
substantially made of the best materials, and paint- 
ed. When the whole is closed, it is perfectly dark 
like night, and secure. In this situation my bees 
remain during winter. They consume one third 
less honey, than when exposed to the light ; and 
my hives are better stocked with bees, and swarm 
earlier, than in the ordinary way. Bees enclosed 
in the apiary are kept perfectly dry, and remain 
quiet from November until March, when one of the 
doors should be removed. I remove the one most 
exposed to the sun, that the bees may be kept 
warm as possible in such a situation, during the 
months of March and April. Bees kept in the 
apiary during winter, as in every other situation, 
should be ventilated, by suffering the planes to re- 
main open about half an inch, to prevent suffoca- 
tion, and also that the bees that die and other filth 
may be discharged ; thereby preserving the health 
of the bees. Bees when exposed to the variety of 
weather during winter, require at least one third 



43 

more food, besides decreasing very much in num- 
ber. Bees, when exposed, frequently issue from 
the hive in great numbers, during a sunny day in 
winter, with the earth clad with snow. Every bee 
that chances to alight upon snow, is sure to find 
a cold grave ; being immediately chilled, and 
therefore unable to return to the hive. Those 
bees that return to the hive, enter with an increased 
appetite, devouring more honey in one hour, than 
they would have done in one week, had they re- 
mained inactive. 

White clover affords the best field pasturage for 
bees, and it may serve the agriculturist a double 
purpose, as it affords the richest pasture for faten- 
ing cattle, and may with profit be extensively cul- 
tivated. Buckwheat should be cultivated by every 
apiarian suitably situated. It may be cultivated to 
the greatest profit the last part of the season, and 
it very happily takes the place of white clover. 
The honey extracted from buckwheat is not so 
rich and delicate as that from the white clover ; 
but it answers a very good purpose for the bees to 
winter on, and is furnished in great abundance. 
Waldridge, a German writer, states that he saw 
forty large bee-hives filled with honey, to the 
amount of seventy pounds each, in one fortnight, 
by their being placed near a large field of buck- 
wheat in flower. 



BEST METHOD OF DESTROYING OR PREVENTING 
THE RAVAGES OF THE BEE MOTH. 

The true bee moth is a native of Europe, but 
has been transplanted and naturalized in this coun- 
try. It has been known to exist in this country 
about sixty years, and it is supposed by some to 



44 

have been introduced here, with that filthy, loath- 
some, and worst of all trees, the Lombardy poplar. 
Be that as it may, we have it, and are always likely 
to have it in greater or less number. Thousands 
of stocks of bees are destroyed by this little insect 
in our country annually. The bee moth has be- 
come so common in New England and the middle 
and western States, and its success in destroying 
the bee so complete, that very many apiarians 
have become discouraged, and abandoned the en- 
terprise. Much time and money has been spent 
in devising some plan of destroying the bee moth, 
and of exterminating its race. But it is generally 
conceded that the moth cannot be exterminated, as 
it is not confined exclusively to our apiaries, but is 
found among bees in cavities of rocks and trees, 
and sometimes in the nests of the humble bee. 
Since the extermination of the race cannot be ef- 
fected, the only alternative for apiarians, is to use 
every exertion in their power to prevent it rava- 
ges. This may be eflected by using the Self-pro- 
tecting Hive. 

The double inclined plane at the base of the 
hive, is undoubtedly the best possible plan of se- 
curing the bees against the ravages of the moth, 
without interfering with the natural course of the 
bee. Many plans have been adopted by apiarians, 
to prevent this loathsome insect from destroying 
their favorite. But all, except the base of the 
Self-protecting Hive, have either failed to accom- 
plish the object of its originator, or interfered 
with the natural course of the bee. Some have 
adopted the use of large hives, situated within 
their dwellings, with the base of the hive some 
distance below the bees, with the design for apia- 
rians to brush out the worms, when they shall 
have been thrown down by the bees. But this 



45 

does not have the desired effect. It not only fails 
to prevent the moth, but interferes with the course 
of nature : it interferes with the course of nature 
in preventing the bees swarming ; and it fails to 
prevent the destruction by worms, from the fact, 
that persons cannot always stand in readiness to 
brush out the worms, when the bees shall have 
thrown them down, before they have time to as- 
cend into the top of the hive among the combs. 
Some use the single plane suspended below the 
hive by means of wires, (and this plan is secured 
by patent ;) this plan operates also against nature, 
besides it is not so good a conductor of filth, as 
the double plane, from the fact that it has double 
the distance to move after reaching the plane ; 
and cannot consistently be made with the same 
descent. It operates against nature, from the fact 
that every bee that alights upon the plane, is again 
obliged to fly to enter the hive, instead of crawl, 
as it is natural for them to do. Bees, after alight- 
ing upon the suspended plane, traverse for some 
length of time, before attempting to fly to the comb, 
and this is done every time they return to the hive, 
which is proof conclusive that nature has designed 
that they should travel, instead of fly, to their 
comb ; this operates worse upon the bees in the 
first part of the season, during the months of March 
and April, when the bees go abroad in search of 
pollen. On returning to the hive, frequently par- 
tially benumbed, they wander about the plane, in 
search of some place to crawl to the combs, and 
finally perish for the want of strength to fly, and 
this too at a season of the year when their num- 
bers are most wanted to produce animal heat suf- 
ficient to propagate the young. 

The moth enters the hive during the night, and 
deposits its eggs. 



46 

This loathsome insect is suffered to enter the 
hive usually unmolested, it accomplishes its ob- 
ject, and leaves the hive to die. The moth is of 
the butterfly form, small size, of a s^rayish color, 
and makes its appearance about the first of May, 
and continues till Autumn : usually till about the 
first of October. The eggs hatch in about two 
weeks, and produce very small worms, which in 
a well populated hive are immediately seized by 
the bees, and thrown to the bottom of the hive ; 
if this bottom be the double inclined plane, instead 
of returning to the combs, they are immediately 
discharged to the ground, from whence they can- 
not return. On the common platform in the box 
hive, the young worm on being thrown down 
from the combs, immediately crawls up the sides 
of the hive, and continues to crawl up when 
thrown down by the bees, until it is of sufficient 
size to spin its web, when it is no longer assailed 
by the bees, but suffered to commit its nefarious 
depredations unmolested ; its cocoon being im- 
penetrable by the bees. By addition of numbers, 
the brood of the bees is soon destroyed, the bees 
routed, and the victors take possession of the spoil. 
They feed on the wax and comb, devouring in 
their march the cells which contain the eggs and 
the young brood of bees, until they are wholly 
destroyed. Having, at length, attained their full 
size and maturity, the worms are changed into a 
chrysalis state, their bodies are contracted within 
their cocoon, they cease to feed, and in due time 
are transformed into a winged insect, the true bee 
moth. The length of the worm when full grown, 
is about an inch ; and I have seen them at their 
full size early in April. 



47 



MANAGEMENT OF HIVES DURING WINTER. 

It has long been a custom for the apiarian, to 
select a certain number of hives from his apiary, 
for wintering, and to suffocate the remainder. 
This practice should be abandoned. It is like 
killing a favorite horse for his skin ; for the bees 
are usually worth four times as much as the honey 
obtained. If you have late swarms that do not 
obtain honey sufficient for wintering, feed them 
by inserting a drawer of honey, in October, that 
they may learn a passage to it, before the setting 
in of winter. A late swarm, if wintered, will the 
second season fill up their hive and make double 
the amount of surplus honey that would have been 
obtained, had the bees been suifocated the first sea- 
son, besides a good stock of bees, and perhaps one 
or two swarms. 

It is not only a disagreeable job to suffocate 
bees, but certainly a great waste of property. 

Various notions prevail with regard to the win- 
tering of bees. Some prefer to have them re- 
main in the same situation in winter, as they have 
done through the summer ; some bury them 
by digging a hole in the side of a sand bank, 
below frost, then placing a plank in the bottom 
for the hives to stand upon, carefully covering 
them with straw, and last of all, thoroughly cov- 
ering them with dirt. The bees remain in this 
situation until spring, when they are uncovered, 
taken out, and placed in the apiary. Bees will 
undoubtedly live, and consume but very little 
honey, in this situation ; but the comb is apt to 
mould and often injure the bees. But a much 
better plan is to take your bees from their hanging 
frame, carry them to some spare room in your 



48 

house, place your hives on benches, to prevent 
mice from annoying them, open the planes about 
half an inch, that the hive may be sufficiently 
ventilated, make your windows quite dark, and 
in this situation let your bees remain from No- 
vember until March ; when they may be removed 
to their hanging frames from whence they were 
taken. A very suitable frame for suspending a 
single hive, may be made by setting four small 
posts, four feet long, about six inches in the 
ground, two feet square at the bottom ; one way 
eighteen inches apart at top, and the other way 
twelve and a half inches, to receive the hive be- 
tween the posts ; the posts should be furnished 
with cleats, for the cleats on the hive to rest upon, 
and thoroughly braced to prevent their spreading. 

If a hive contain twenty-five pounds of honey 
and comb, in November, no farther attention is 
required, as respects their food. 

Bees, after once located in the spring, should not 
be removed unless at a considerable distance : they 
may be removed miles with perfect safety, but to 
remove them a few rods is surely destructive to 
them ; nature has taught them to return from the 
field to their old location, and seldom more than 
one half of the workers find their new situation. 
1 have known whole colonies destroyed by two 
or three removals during one season. If the bees 
are not all lost they are reduced so low as to be 
unable to guard the combs, thereby exposing the 
interior of the hive to their merciless foe, the bee 
moth, which eagerly enters, and under such cir- 
cumstances, soon takes possession of the hive. 



